Differences between English and Welsh Law

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his law officer responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 5 March 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:17, 5 March 2019

I'm grateful to the Counsel General for that response. Of course, we do have a peculiar anomaly, do we not, in that we have a Parliament that makes laws but we have no distinctive judiciary to enforce those. I believe, in fact, that we're the only Parliament or regional Parliament in the western world where that is the case, and, obviously, the Counsel General won't be surprised to hear me say that we believe, on these benches, that the long-term solution to that is the full devolution of the justice system.

But with regard to the situation currently, the Counsel General will be aware that, already, incorrect decisions have been made as a result of judges not understanding the difference between English and Welsh law. He will be aware that there were a couple of cases last year, for example, relating to the provision of care services. Can the Counsel General assure us today that he will remain vigilant in ensuring that particularly new members of the judiciary receive appropriate training as part of their core training to ensure that they do understand that they are now delivering two separate, distinct types of law in many fields—in all the devolved fields—to ensure that we don't go through the costly and, in the case of those care cases, very distressing process of incorrect determinations being made as a result, frankly, of ignorance on the judges' part?